The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
New Haven native talks life in Las Vegas as pro gambler
Last week, Mark Franco, who grew up in the New Haven Annex area and graduated from East Haven High, took a ride with a friend along the Las Vegas Strip, famous for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos.
“It was surreal,” Franco, 52, said. “I’ve never seen it like this.
It was like a ghost town with no one on the street thanks to this COVID-19 pandemic. The strip draws so many people and it’s usually crowded.
“The casinos shut down on March 18. When we drove along the Strip all the casinos were boarded up with plywood. Because casinos are usually open 24 hours, there are no doors with locks. The only way to keep people out of the casinos is to board them up with plywood.”
On Nov. 7, 2000, Franco decided to pursue a dream and moved to Las Vegas to become a professional sports gambler. Unlike recently when Federal legislation allowed states to offer sports betting, 20 years ago Las Vegas was the only place in the United State where you could legally wager on all sports in casinos.
Franco immediately had success and enjoyed solid finishes in high-stakes sports contests with buy-ins as high as $1,500. His success led to a local Las Vegas sports betting radio show that had a limited run, a sports wagering informational website, www.francosportspicks.com, and contributing NFL writer opportunities at the Las Vegas Review, a local newspaper, and VegasInsider.com, an informational sports betting site.
Starting on March 11, 2020 the sports betting world, especially mainstream sports like the NBA and NHL, came to a halt.
“On March 11, the Utah Jazz late-night NBA game (at the Oklahoma City Thunder) was delayed and then canceled because a player (Rudy Gobert) had tested posi
tive for coronavirus. Another NBA game that night was canceled and the dominoes started to fall. The next day college conference tournament games were canceled and the next day the NCAA men’s basketball tournament was canceled.
“It was crazy to see all those sports canceled. When the NCAA men’s basketball tournament was canceled, it was a huge blow to all the sportsbooks in Las Vegas. The Super Bowl is the biggest single-day betting event in Las Vegas. But the March Madness event is a much bigger betting event than the Super Bowl. The first four days of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament you have 10 times more players (sports bettors) in the sportsbooks betting on the men’s basketball games.”
The NFL draft was also originally scheduled for Las Vegas.
“The NFL draft event was expected to be the biggest event of the year in Las Vegas, drawing the biggest crowd of the year,” Franco said. “We expected 600,000 people to come to Vegas for the NFL draft. It was a big blow to everyone here. In the history of gambling in Las Vegas and Nevada, until now there was never a time when casinos were totally shut down.
“Prior to now, there are only two times when casinos were closed and it was only for a brief time of around two hours for each event, when John F. Kennedy was shot and when 9/11 happened (Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York).”
Franco said the shutdown hasn’t had an impact on his income.
“These days I do most of my sports betting by mobile phone on the casinos sports betting Apps,” Franco said. “The Westgate (Casino) Sportsbook App and South Point (Casino) App. Both Apps have come back online with the MMA back in action. I’m not a big UFC fan but I’ll have some action on it.
“In my opinion, the college football season is in doubt. There are a lot of questions and a lot more travel needed with that sport. Different states will have different re-opening procedures and some restrictions might not allow teams to travel to certain states right away. You also don’t know if certain campuses will be open or if sports will be allowed to be played in some college stadiums. The UFC has begun the return of sports, NASCAR and the PGA are coming back and the NBA is working on a way to come back. I think initially you will see the NFL return with no fans in the stands.”
Franco said another big blow to Las Vegas comes with the debut of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders.
“The Raiders coming to Vegas is a huge deal here,” Franco said. “But it’s another area where COVID-19 will have a big impact on the city. In week two of the NFL season the Raiders are scheduled to be on Monday Night Football. It was expected to draw a huge crowd to Vegas and its casinos. But the way it looks now the NFL season will start with no fans in the stands, which means no fans in the stands for that showcase event for the Raiders.”
Franco said Las Vegas and all Nevada casinos will have a different look when they reopen.
“You won’t see the whole Strip open at once, it will be a slow process,” Franco said. “You will only see a few casinos open and the casinos will be a much different place than what we are used to. Staffs will be reduced and at first you won’t see a lot of people coming here because of concerns with flying.
“Due to social distancing, casinos will pull out about 50 percent of their slot machines because you don’t want people so close to one another. There will be glass partitions in front of dealers and glass partitions between players at the table games. They will limit the number of people at each table. Instead of five players at a black jack table you will only see three per table.”
Franco said with mobile phone sports betting Apps returning and sports slowly returning, things will eventually get back to normal.
“Like everyone else, my wife and I have stayed at home and we do the social distancing thing,” Franco said. “I have never been so claustrophobic in my life. You can only watch so much of the same old replays of sports games on TV. When I came here 20 years ago, it never entered my mind that casinos would ever close down in Las Vegas for any reason.
“Everyone here can’t wait for the casinos to reopen. But it has to be done right. The Nevada Gaming Board (regulates Nevada casino gambling) has put together guidelines casinos have to follow to reopen and the governor (Gov. Steve Sisolak) is taking a slow approach to the reopening of casinos, which makes sense.”
Nevada began its first phase of reopening with retail businesses on a limited basis on Saturday. Sisolak has said in news reports that casinos will remain closed for now with no specific date decided on for phase two of reopening in Nevada.